The big fat manual. The first real, physical manual I ever possessed, was for MSDOS 5. I think it was 5.0, don't think there was a 5.1 or higher, but I can't remember. I'm pretty sure the manual is still around here somewhere, buried deep among stuff I haven't used for years.
I devoured that manual, then went back to discover all the cool stuff I had missed. Dear Wife blew her stack when the computer booted with a multi-config screen that she couldn't decipher. (Basically, a menu, where you chose to boot up for gamine, or general computing, with or without network support, how to configure memory, etc.)
-- “I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
CP/M came with a fat manual, too. I used to hand the book to people and challenge them to tell me what the first sentence (paragraph?) meant. It was pretty impenetrable. Unlike IBM's manuals, where you had to stop and think about every sentence, but there was heavily-distilled meaning, and not a character was wasted.
Fortunately, if your computer came with CP/M installed (as opposed to home brew), all you really needed was a cheat sheet of commands.
(Score: 2) by Ingar on Monday October 02 2023, @12:37PM (3 children)
MS-DOS 3.3. It came with a big fat manual and I learned a lot of English from it.
Understanding is a three-edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 03 2023, @08:38AM
This explains much more than you intended it to. Sorry.
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday October 03 2023, @06:08PM
The big fat manual. The first real, physical manual I ever possessed, was for MSDOS 5. I think it was 5.0, don't think there was a 5.1 or higher, but I can't remember. I'm pretty sure the manual is still around here somewhere, buried deep among stuff I haven't used for years.
I devoured that manual, then went back to discover all the cool stuff I had missed. Dear Wife blew her stack when the computer booted with a multi-config screen that she couldn't decipher. (Basically, a menu, where you chose to boot up for gamine, or general computing, with or without network support, how to configure memory, etc.)
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by number11 on Sunday October 15 2023, @07:09PM
CP/M came with a fat manual, too. I used to hand the book to people and challenge them to tell me what the first sentence (paragraph?) meant. It was pretty impenetrable. Unlike IBM's manuals, where you had to stop and think about every sentence, but there was heavily-distilled meaning, and not a character was wasted.
Fortunately, if your computer came with CP/M installed (as opposed to home brew), all you really needed was a cheat sheet of commands.